Romney Marsh is a sparsely inhabited marsh area in the counties of Kent as well as East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about 100 square miles (260 km2). An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward had a population of 2,358 at the 2011 census. The Romney Marsh has actually been gradually developed over the centuries. One of the most substantial feature of the Marsh is the Rhee Wall (Rhee is a word for river), developing a noticeable ridge. This feature was extended as a waterway in three phases from Appledore to New Romney in the 13th century. Sluices regulated the flow of water, which was then released to flush silt from the harbour at New Romney. Eventually, the fight was shed; the harbour silted up and New Romney declined in significance. The Rhee maintained part of the old port open till the 15th century. The wall at Dymchurch was built around the very same time; tornados had breached the roof shingles barrier, which had safeguarded it until that time. It is a typical misconception that both these frameworks were built by the Romans. In 1250 and also in the complying with years, a collection of storms broke through the coastal roof shingles financial institutions, flooding considerable locations and returning it to marsh, and also damaging the harbour at New Romney. In 1287 water ruined the port community of Old Winchelsea (now situated some 2 mi (3 km) out in Rye bay), which had been under threat from the sea given that at the very least 1236. Winchelsea, the third biggest port in England and a major importer of white wine, was moved on greater land, with a harbour containing 82 wharfs. Those very same storms, nonetheless, helped to develop more shingle: such beaches currently ran along virtually the whole seaward side of the marshland. By the 14th century, much of the Walland as well as Denge Marshes had actually been reclaimed by "innings", the process of regurgitating an embankment around the sea-marsh and also making use of the low-tide to let it run dry using one-way drains set right into the brand-new seawall, escaping right into a network of dykes called locally "sewage systems" in 1462, the Romney Marsh Corporation was established to mount water drainage as well as sea supports for the marsh, which it remained to build right into the 16th century. By the 16th century, the training course of the Rother had been altered to its channel today; the majority of the rest of the area had actually now been recovered from the sea. The roof shingles continues to be deposited. Because of this, all the initial Cinque Ports of the Marsh are currently much from the sea. Dungeness Point is still being included in: although (especially near Dungeness and Hythe) an everyday procedure is in location to counter the improving of the roof shingles banks, making use of boats to dredge as well as move the wandering shingle. The Marsh ended up being the residential or commercial property of the Priory of Canterbury in the 9th century, that provided the first occupancy on the land to a guy called Baldwin, at some time in between 1152 and also 1167, for "as much land as Baldwin himself can confine and also drain versus the sea"; Baldwin's Drain (drainage ditch) continues to be in use. The marsh has because come to be covered by a thick network of drainage ditches and once sustained big farming neighborhoods. These watercourses are maintained as well as taken care of for lasting water levels by the Romney Marsh Area Internal Drainage Board. Romney Marsh adjoins the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is much less established than lots of various other locations in Kent and Sussex. The decrease in sheep prices meant that also the neighborhood stock (sold worldwide for breeding for over 2 centuries) ended up being unsustainable. Turfing had constantly been a lesser method as a result of the grassland maintained short by the sheep reared upon it, however farms are enhancing in dimension to make up for the decline in sustainable livestock farming. Some view this as unsustainable due to the damage to dirt ecology of the Marsh. The only other option, because 1946, has been for farmers to count on arable farming, transforming the landscape from a patchwork of tiny family farms to a few considerable arable manufacturing devices.